Narrated over images of police in riot gear and a street choked by tear gas and fire, cable news network MSNBC offered this summation Thursday of Occupy Oakland's general strike: "Fires burned. Tear gas is fired. Police are injured."

A downside of the intentionally leaderless Occupy Wall Street movement isn't just that nobody takes responsibility for violence by its splinter groups, but also that nobody can control its message.

"That's kind of what they signed up for with a leaderless movement," said Jordan Raynor, a strategist and political consultant with Engage, a firm that uses media and technology to promote conservative candidates and causes. "Anybody can be the face of the movement and hijack the message. It just depends on the news cycle."

MSNBC's coverage was typical of how TV - where most Americans get their news - distilled Wednesday's events, when several thousand people demonstrated largely peacefully for 15 hours and a few hundred sparked mayhem afterward.

At the same time, social-media sites spread false rumors of takeovers of the Bay Bridge and vehicular homicides, which stirred already volatile emotions.

While UC Berkeley journalism instructor and longtime TV news producer Bob Calo said "laziness" often prevents TV newscasters from telling a more complex narrative in favor of tear gas scenes, "clarity is not coming" with some new media.

The protests are being live-streamed online, where there is little context provided, aside from viewers' written comments next to the images they're watching.

While "message discipline" is a term more commonly used to describe political campaigns, analysts say similar problems could hamper Occupy Wall Street as it tries to change the way people think about what it says are broken political and economic systems that favor the wealthy in the United States.

"It's a shame that a few broken windows are what certain media chose to focus on when the city came together peacefully in a public place where just days earlier police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on people," said Laura Long, a member of the Occupy Oakland media committee.

But Long was reluctant to criticize the "autonomous actions" of the splinter group that police say were responsible for the late night mayhem.

"It becomes perversely difficult to deplore tactics that you find repulsive," Miller said. "There is such a premium placed on unity that you'd be seen as disloyal if you spoke out against them."

Even some Occupy supporters are clouding their message. While social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook have been invaluable in helping Occupy Wall Street organize, they've also been a source of misinformation.

At about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, @OperationleakS, an anonymous Occupy supporter with more than 26,000 followers, tweeted "Confirmed: 2 protesters at #OccupyOakland Oscar Grant Plaza were hit by a 'frustrated' driver one of them has die at the hospital."

Two pedestrians were hit, but they weren't killed. Still, someone tweeting under the handle @gone_gonzo responded, "it's time for mob justice. drag the driver through the streets to the nearest police department and citizens' arrest him."

Within the hour, @OperationleakS issued an "update": "No deaths. Sorry about that. Both have non life threatening injuries ... Again sorry for the miscommunication."